Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez was born in Bronx, New York on July 24, 1969, the middle child in a family of three daughters. The star attended Catholic school, where she first explored her interest in singing, dancing, and acting. She dropped out of Baruch College after one semester to pursue an entertainment career. In the early 1990s, she worked as a backup dancer for New Kids on the Block, before moving to Los Angeles, where she became one of the Fly Girls on the Fox TV show “In Living Color.”

Lopez then scored bit parts in television shows and films, but her big break came with 1997’s “Selena,” in which she portrayed the slain Tejano singer. Several movies followed, including “Anaconda” and 1998’s “Out of Sight” with George Clooney. The following year, Lopez released her debut single, “If You Had My Love,” followed by her first album, “On The 6,” with the hit song “Waiting for Tonight.”

In 2000, Lopez made her mark as one to watch not just for music and acting, but also fashion, when she attended the Grammys in a scandalously-plunging Versace gown. With her fame growing exponentially, Lopez continued to work across mediums, with her album “J.Lo” and film “The Wedding Planner” getting released the same week in 2001. Lopez’s other nickname, “Jenny From The Block,” came about in 2003 when she released a song of the same name from her album, “This Is Me… Then.”

Despite expanding her brand to include fashion lines and fragrances, Lopez’s career took a hit when she and then-fiancé Ben Affleck starred in the 2003 box office bomb “Gigli.” Still, Lopez continued to act in a number of movies, including “Shall We Dance,” “Monster-in-Law,” and “An Unfinished Life,” and released another album, “Rebirth” in 2005, followed by “Brave” in 2007.

After taking some time off following the 2008 birth of her twins, Max and Emme, with then-husband Marc Anthony, Lopez released her first movie in three years, “The Back-Up Plan,” and also joined “American Idol” as a judge. Her first season on the show in 2011 came at the same time as a new album, “Love?” with the hit single, “On The Floor.”

Following two seasons on “Idol,” Lopez left to go on her first headlining concert tour around the globe. She then released another album, “A.K.A.,” before re-joining “American Idol” for the season airing in 2015, coinciding with the release of her big-screen thriller, “The Boy Next Door.” From January to December 2016, Lopez held her first Las Vegas residency show titled “All I Have.” She currently has a starring role on the NBC cop drama “Shades of Blue” and is also attached to star in NBC’s “Bye Bye Birdie Live,” slated to air in December 2017.

Lopez’s fame has often been intertwined with her personal life. In addition to dating Diddy, being engaged to Affleck, and later married to Anthony, she was previously wed to Ojani Noa and Cris Judd. Lopez also had an on-off relationship with choreographer Casper Smart from October 2011 to August 2016. In February 2017, Lopez began dating former New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez.